Our Common Nature: West Virginia Coal
Radiolab introduces a special episode from the series "Our Common Nature" in which host Ana Gonzalez and cellist Yo-Yo Ma explore West Virginia's coal country to understand how coal, music, race, and nature shape people's lives. Through stories from miners like Chris Saunders and his mother Zora, poet-activist Crystal Good, musician Kathy Matea, and others, the episode examines the pride, danger, and environmental harm tied to coal, as well as the resilience and community that persist in Appalachia. The journey weaves together mine history, the Upper Big Branch disaster, iconic songs, rafting on the New River, and intimate moments of grief and connection.
How to see (and stop) deforestation from space | Tasso Azevedo
Land reformer Tasso Azevedo describes how the MapBiomas Network turns decades of satellite imagery into detailed, legally robust land-use maps to expose and curb deforestation in Brazil and other tropical regions. By integrating high-resolution imagery, property registries, and protected area data, the project has dramatically increased enforcement against illegal deforestation, redirected finance away from destructive operations, and supported a wide range of environmental and social applications. The talk also highlights successful action against illegal gold mining and outlines plans to expand this collaborative mapping approach to cover most of the world's tropical forests.
How Russia's shadow fleet is sailing around oil sanctions
The episode investigates Russia's "shadow fleet" of aging oil tankers that has emerged to evade Western sanctions and the G7 oil price cap imposed after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A Danish maritime pilot, Bjarne Cesar Skinnerup, describes guiding increasingly numerous, poorly maintained tankers carrying Russian oil through the Danish Straits, while maritime intelligence specialist Michelle V.C. Bachman explains how the fleet is structured using opaque ownership, fake insurance, and permissive or fraudulent flags. The hosts explore how this underground shipping network reshapes global oil flows, sustains Russian revenues, raises geopolitical tensions, and creates severe environmental and financial risks for coastal nations, while leaving individuals like Bjarne in a moral bind.
#483 - Julia Shaw: Criminal Psychology of Murder, Serial Killers, Memory & Sex
Criminal psychologist Julia Shaw discusses the psychology of "evil" as a continuum of traits, covering the dark tetrad, serial killers, murder, and why ordinary people can commit horrific acts under certain conditions. She explains her research on false memories and how easily they can be implanted or distorted, the limits of lie detection and intuitive judgments like creepiness, and how these insights apply to therapy, policing, AI systems, and environmental crime. She also talks about sexuality, bisexuality, polyamory, sexual fantasies and kinks, and her work on green crime and the psychology of those who commit serious environmental offenses.
#613 - Forrest Galante
Forrest Galante discusses growing up on a farm and safari operation in Zimbabwe, witnessing wildlife decline and later violent land seizures that forced his family to flee during the land reform era. He explains how that background led him into wildlife biology and television, covering his work on "Extinct or Alive," his new series "Animals on Drugs," and hands-on conservation projects like chemically and surgically castrating invasive hippos in Colombia. The conversation ranges through close calls with deadly snakes, the ethics of extinction and de‑extinction, invasive species, and why reconnecting with wild places can ground people in a hyperconnected world.
Selects: How Area 51 Works
Josh Clark and Charles W. "Chuck" Bryant trace the history of Area 51 from its origins as part of a World War II bombing range and Nevada nuclear test site to its role in developing secret U.S. spy and stealth aircraft. They explain how black projects, the U-2 and SR-71 programs, and extreme security practices shaped the base, and how Bob Lazar's 1989 claims helped fuse Area 51 with UFO and alien lore. The hosts also discuss Roswell myths, more outlandish conspiracy theories, modern operations at the base, and a 1990s worker-health lawsuit that forced the U.S. government to finally acknowledge the facility's existence.